T

he Jakarta Police’s uncovering of a case pertaining to the issuance of fake land certificates in East Jakarta and Bekasi, West Java, shows graft continues to plague the metropolitan area, where land prices continue to soar.

In an East Jakarta case, suspects are alleged to have faked documents to claim ownership of a plot of land on Jl. DI Panjaitan to sue the Jakarta administration for Rp 340 billion (US$22.8 million) in compensation. The scheme was allegedly orchestrated by a resident named Sudarto, reportedly with the assistance of state officials.

Sudarto, along with seven other residents, filed a lawsuit in 2014 with the East Jakarta District Court claiming that the land on which the East Jakarta Vehicle Document Registration Center (Samsat) office stood, belonged to them.

The court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but years later, it was discovered that the documents submitted for the case were fake.

The National Land Agency (BPN) declared that neither the land ownership certificate nor the sale and purchase deeds had been issued by the agency, according to the police.

“The ruling drove our curiosity. We had a certificate but why did we lose? We investigated and noticed that the documents [the plaintiff submitted] might have been faked. We then reported it to the police,” Jakarta legal bureau head Yayan Yuhana said on Thursday.

It remains unclear which institution issued the certificate or how the court could rule in favor of the plaintiff despite the bogus documents. The Jakarta Police’s general crimes deputy director, Adj. Sr. Comr. Ade Ary, said state officials might have been involved in the reported crime.

“We suspect there are more people involved,” Ade said, adding that an investigation was ongoing to identify the institution that issued the certificates.

The 29,040-square-meter plot of land, worth Rp 900 billion, has been listed as a city asset since April 1985, when the administration purchased it from a businessman named Johnny Hary Soetantyo. The Samsat building was officiated seven years later.

The police named on Wednesday 19 individuals, including a district head, suspects in the two separate cases in East Jakarta and Bekasi regency. Of the 19 suspects, eight are linked to the East Jakarta case, while the 11 others are linked to the Bekasi case.

The seven other East Jakarta suspects, Ade said, allegedly assisted Sudarto in carrying out the crime because he promised them 25 percent of the compensation demanded from the city. Ade claimed the seven suspects admitted they did not have rights to the land.

The police also announced that 11 people, including Segara Makmur village and Tarumajaya district heads, as well as staff members in Bekasi, West Java, had been named suspects in a case pertaining to the issuance of fake land certificates to a resident named Lilis Suryani.

In 2014, people claimed they had purchased the land, supported by the necessary documents.

The forged documents had been officially recorded at the Tarumajaya district administration. “So it looked like there had been a transaction,” Ade said. Officials also reportedly issued 163 sale deeds, Ade said, adding that the officials have been with the authorities for more than a decade.

Indonesian Ombudsman commissioner Alamsyah Saragih said the case was just the tip of the iceberg and that similar cases implicating state officials were pervasive.

“Some [cases] indicate that the land mafia continues to infiltrate up to the courts,” he said. “It is even more difficult to uncover if it involves officials from the subdistrict office, provincial administration, land agency, prosecutor’s office or courts.”

Trisakti University public policy expert Trubus Rahardiansyah said the cases in East Jakarta and Bekasi were not something new, adding that similar cases had gone unprocessed on account of corrupt practices.